Draft Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at preliminary task in which I did I think that I have come a long way and that my final image is a lot better and looks a lot more like a magazine front cover. As I don't really read music magazines too much I didn't really have a sense of creativeness for making a front cover for a music magazine but after doing the preliminary task I looked at magazines that matched my genre such as Metal Hammer and Kerrang magazine. By actually looking at other magazines I started to understand what I needed to put on my front cover. I decided to change around the background because obviously I understood that a rock magazine wouldn't usually have a light blue background as it wouldn't fit the conventions of a normal rock magazine. The bar code is on the same side of the page which is the right side of the page but located at the bottom of the page because most magazines such as Kerrang feature their bar code around that area so it makes more sense. I felt the colours I had used in preliminary task were repulsive and nobody would buy a magazine if it was that colour so I decided to change the colours around so they matched the genre I was going for so I used Red which is much more of a darker colour to use which can represent death and blood which most rock things are about.

My contents changed drastically I changed the colour scheme which was repulsive to look at just like on the front cover. I managed to place an image on my contents page in my final magazine which gave it an overall boost and it actually started to look like a magazine contents instead of a poster you would find on a wall. The colour scheme worked perfectly which also gave it that overall appearance of an actual magazine you would buy in a shop. I used a different font which allowed me to gain an overall feel of the rock genre I was going for because black bold text is something you would find in a standard rock music magazine.

Draft Evaluation Question 6

To product my magazine I have used many different products a long the way which has helped me to get to where I am now. By using software such Adobe Photoshop I was able to easily produce a creative piece of work. I learned how to use the products and how to become comfortable with these products so I could give myself an overall advantage on producing my magazine. Being comfortable with the camera I used for my images was essential because I needed to know how the camera work so I could produce the perfect images without having to go back and get more pictures. Overall in the photo shoot I managed to gain over 40 images some of which were left out because of little detail I didn't want to include in my magazine. 

The camera which I decided to use was the Sony A33 which wasn't the camera we was provided with in the college. I used my fellow classmates camera because I knew how to work this camera well and also felt more comfortable with this camera. The camera let me focus on the things I wanted to take pictures of so I knew that my images were going to be perfect before I even took them. By using this camera I was able to take a range of images of people in different poses which gave me a better range of images to choose from when it came to deciding what images to use in my magazine. The buttons on the Sony A33 are easily labeled and it allows you to easily use the camera to your best advantage. I learnt that the importance of using a tripod with this camera because it allowed me to have steady and non blurry images which was essential.

When it came to using the computer I decided to use an ordinary computer as I felt more comfortable with this computer as I hadn't had much experience with using Apple Mac computers in the past. By using a more comfortable option of computer it allowed me to get my work done quicker because I knew where everything was located on that computer. IT was simple to take images off the camera and to put them onto the computer was even easier. When printing out my final product I was using a standard computer as it's a lot simpler to use and because I hadn't had any experience with an Apple Mac I didn't want to take a risk when I was comfortable with using a standard computer.

Producing my magazine was a relativity easy thing to do because with Adobe Photoshop I had already had a lot of experience so I easily understood the aspects of the software. Being comfortable with Adobe Photoshop was good because it meant I could get straight into designing without having to learn about the actual program first. I did learn how to use new aspects of the software like using the magic eraser tool but tools such as knowing how to use the layers and how to rotate, place and re size images was something I had already learnt from my other subjects which I had used Photoshop in. Photoshop was the sole program I used for producing my magazine as it had all the correct tools I needed to produce my magazine.

Blogger was the main website I used to post all of my work in which I had done for my magazine. Blogger shows my work in a stylish way for other people to see if they need help with their work. Blogger is an efficient and easy website to use and I could see other peoples blog posts if I needed help with my work. Being able to use blogger when I needed help was good because it meant I could see other peoples coursework for guidance. I used blogger to post my research which I could later refer to when trying to answer questions related to my research. Blogger includes research which I have collected from websites such as Uktribes and Dafont which were two vital websites I needed to refer to.

Animoto is the website I used to create my pitch which I shared with the rest of the class. Using Animoto was a wise choice as it had an efficient layout meaning I could understand what everything was and how everything worked. Being able to input images and my own music gave my pitch a unique feel and being able to add text to express my pitch was an essential part of the website. Animoto was an easy way to show my ideas in a presentation to the class and it meant others could easily watch the presentation and then give me feedback.

Soundcloud is a website in which people can sign up and view others peoples created songs or view songs that actual known artists have released to the public. You can view remixes of songs and I used soundcloud to produce my 20 song tasters which would allow the public to see what sort of genre I had gone for in my music magazine. The songs I had linked represented my genre with ease. below are a few examples of the songs in which I shared to represent my genre.

I used the website Scribd which allowed me to take standard Microsoft Word documents and put them on my blog without having to copy and paste all of the text over onto my blog. This was effective because it meant if my document included images with annotation I could just show that on my blog with the Scribd embed tool. 

Draft Evaluation Question 5

Attraction:

By putting effort into the front cover of my magazine it has allowed me to gain fans because most people like to read magazines with a stylish front cover. By using a simple colour scheme and also unique fonts on my front cover it allowed me to catch the readers eye with ease. By using an image of a girl which I had modeled myself I could visualize what people would want to look at on the front cover of a magazine and was able to take pictures of that girl in poses that would catch the readers eye. Because the image is a young attractive female most male readers would instantly pick up the magazine and would want to read about the main article just because of the image used. Other readers would like the design/layout of the magazine and would want to read through the magazine so I had to appeal to different areas of people when designing my magazine front cover. AS the main doesn't give much away about the main article it is very vague and people like to read mysterious things as they don't know what the article is going to be like until they actually read the article themselves.

On general rock magazines such as Kerrang and Metal Hammer the main image is placed in the middle of the front cover with other pictures and text all around it going on about other articles shown in the magazine. My magazine copies these conventions because of how prestigious Kerrang and Metal Hammer are. By using a simple but stylish Red, Black and White colour scheme I am able to attract more people because the colours do not clash and are the colours that would be associated with rock genre magazines. I tried to appeal to my audience by using fonts that would catch the readers eye such as the font I used for the masthead which sticks out as it is black and bold and also it stretches along the whole width of the front cover. The price of my magazine would attract the reader as it would be respectable for a magazine of my genre.

Addressing:

I addressed my audience by modelling a girl who knows a lot about the rock genre of music. Without knowing a lot about the genre of rock myself I knew that modelling the girl I did would be a wise choice because of how easily she represents the young generation of people who enjoy listening to rock music. The clothing and the makeup used show how passionate she is about rock music and also the poses used represent what young rock lovers would do at rock concerts.

By using bands and artists that rock lovers would listen to it has addressed the reader perfectly and also by including the sort of language that young rock people would use I have addressed the type of language rock people would use.

Draft Evaluation Question 4

Prezi Presentation:

Slide 1:

Name of my magazine and the evaluation question shown.

Slide 2:

I am going to be producing a rock genre magazine so I need to be able to know who I am aiming my magazine towards. I have done research on rock magazines and have found out that it is mostly the younger generation who buy magazines all together so I am going to aim my rock magazine at young adults at the age of 16 to 24. Even though I am going to aim my magazine at the younger generation I am also aware that older people also read rock magazines so I will take into account that I need to make sure people in the age range of 26 to 30 will want to read my produced magazine. Using the website uktribes.com I have found out about the different audiences that would read my rock genre magazine and only a few tribes were selected to actually match my magazine genre. The tribes that my magazine would reach out to is the tribes such as Emo's or Goths who love to listen to heavy metal music or maybe to singers such as Marilyn Manson, these tribes are associated with the rock genre because of the clothing worn by these tribes and the stereotypes.

Slides 3, 4, 5 and 6:

Picture on each slide of my audience profile of young and older people who enjoy rock music.

(16 to 24) and (26 to 30)

Slides 7, 8 and 9:

Annotation of bands that my audience profile would listen to such as Greenday, Asking Alexandria and Bring Me the Horizon.

Slide 10: 

Talk about what my audience profile wants. Things such as gossip on new upcoming bands and what their favourite bands are up to around the world.

Draft Evaluation Question 3

Bauer media group is the institution that produced Kerrang magazine and they own over 80 well known media brands spanning across the world. This institution reaches out to 19 million UK adults every week. The company was first started in Hamburg in Germany which now operates in 16 countries worldwide. The reason I have chosen Bauer Media Group is because they are the institution behind Kerrang magazine which is a very prestigious rock magazine which is known worldwide. Bauer Media Group already produce a rock magazine and it would seem stupid that the media group would also produce my rock magazine as well as Kerrang but the reason they would produce my magazine as well is because my rock magazine if based on new and upcoming rock bands rather than older rock bands that always get shown in rock magazines. My magazine would fit in alongside with Kerrang magazine because Kerrang is a older rock magazine which uses older rock bands whereas my magazine will show new and upcoming rock artists and bands. The main reason Bauer would publish my magazine is because they already have experience with a prestigious and well known rock magazine which is Kerrang magazine. Because my magazine is a typical rock genre magazine Bauer would produce my magazine and would allow it to gain a wider range of fans around the world. An institution such as Bauer would allow my magazine to gain more sales. I would produce my magazine so it would be sold is shops such as HMV or maybe local news shops because my magazine is more informal and not many high end shops would want to sell this type of music genre magazine. Also producing my magazine in local news shops would allow young readers to be able to buy the magazine with ease meaning more people would read the magazine.

Draft Evaluation Question 2

The image used on the front cover of my magazine represents particular social groups because the styling of the person on my magazine shows effectively what a young person would wear if they was passionate about rock music. The clothing and the makeup allow people to understand that the person I have used represents young people who love to listen to rock music as I have chosen to go for two girls who have formed a rock band and are quite young. The woman shown on the Kerrang magazine is of a similar young age but also represents young female rock lovers as she stands with a body image showing she isn’t all about mainstream music. On my music magazine the girl I have chosen is the lead singer and matches that of the Kerrang magazine as the young woman is the lead singer of her band as well. Both girls show a body image and a rock like pose which represents them to be “bad” girls as rock isn’t for the social groups that are more laid back.

Using this girl to model my front cover was a wise choice as she represents young rockers perfectly showing how they look on a stereotypical level. Allowing this girl to represent the genre of music that is rock lets people know that not all rock people dress up in full black outfits with masses of black makeup along their face.

Draft Evaluation Question 1

My created magazine was based on the very prestigious rock genre magazine Kerrang magazine. The reason I chose to use Kerrang magazine as my main inspiration is because of how many people across the world read the well-known magazine. My magazine matches the conventions of Kerrang magazine as the title is shown at the top of the page and is long in vertical length and is stretched across the width of the page. I have also included a sub heading above the top of mast head of the magazine which Kerrang also do in their magazines. My magazine fits the conventions of Kerrang magazine as the colour schemes used are very similar as in some of the issues that Kerrang have published feature the same colour scheme as I have chosen in my created magazine. My colour scheme is Red, Black and White and all three colours work well together and easily fit the rock genre I was going for. The main picture I decided to use also fits the convention of Kerrang magazine which is the main image stretched across the whole front of the magazine and the picture is from waist upwards. The text shown in the middle of the magazine also fits the convention of the Kerrang magazine as the text is on a slant and looks like the text shown on the front of the Kerrang magazine. The banner at the bottom of the magazine is the same as the banner at the bottom of the Kerrang magazine both showing other bands featured in the magazine.

Layout:

The layout of the whole front cover matches the layout of Kerrang magazine as that was my main inspiration and also the contents page which I designed matches up with the contents page that Kerrang magazine use for their magazine. The layout is consistant throughout the whole magazine and. The well constructed layout allows people to know that the magazine is of a rock genre.

Design & Text:

the fonts and text I have chosen to use in my produced magazine really show that the magazine is of a rock genre and it easily shows that the magazine is all about rock bands. This is because the text shown is black and very bold the masthead for example has the same length and width as the masthead in Kerrang magazine. The fonts used all over my magazine are easily matchable to those of Kerrang magazine as they are simple to read. By keeping the same fonts and colours throughout my magazine the whole thing came together perfectly and allowed my magazine pieces to look like they are from an actual magazine.

Clothes & Style:

When modelling the person I used for the front cover of my magazine I made sure that the makeup and clothing was correct because the conventions of the main image on Kerrang magazines is that the person in the main image is wearing rock clothing and you can tell from what they’re wearing what type of genre music they are all about. By making sure my model used the correct clothing and makeup for a rock genre magazine I allowed my front cover to look like a profession rock magazine front cover.

How my band/artist represents my chosen genre:

My chosen band represent my chosen genre really well as both girls I chose to model in my magazine know a lot about the rock genre of music and have been to festifals such as download festival which shows rock music. I had to do some editing with the band but all together when modeling the girls the makeup and the clothing worked really well representing the rock genre of music perfectly.

Final Pieces

Double page spread finished ideas

Throughout the progression of my double page I have changed a few parts of my design but finally have reached the end product that I am happy with. In the first design I originally decided to use simple text and to go for the red colour to match the rest of the magazine in which I had designed. I had originally decided to use a red background for the text but after feedback I decided to download some fonts which were suitable for my rock magazine genre. In the second image I used the other colour scheme in which I used for the other parts of the magazine but the feedback was negative because the colour didn't fit the rock genre. I added a quote above the text as well. In the final image I decided to change the background and also enlarged the image so it was easier to see I also used a drop capital and used other fonts which fitted into the rock genre really easily.

Contents finished ideas

After making a slow progression through designing my contents page I have finally come up with my finished design in which I really think looks professional and fits the magazine genre perfectly. Firstly in the top image I had decided to use a contents layout just like Kerrang magazine and I kept that layout all the way through the progression. In the second image after the feedback I decided to mix things up and see if other colours fit my magazine genre but after getting more feedback off fellow classmates I had decided to change the colour back to red as it fits the magazine genre a lot better and also I decided to create my own subscription part to the magazine in the bottom right of the magazine. Finally I decided to change the main image and the text on the final design so it was a different band that featured on the contents page as most magazines have different bands on different pages. The final design really fits the rock genre I am aiming for and allows the readers to know its a rock magazine.

cover finished ideas

After making my progression through designing my front cover for my rock magazine I have finally come up with a final idea which I think fits the rock genre I am aiming at. Firstly in my first image I had designed my magazine with the name "venom" and originally I had decided to go for a simple rock theme but after feedback I decided to take some of the text of the main screen and re size the image so it was smaller on the front cover. I also changed the colour scheme of the magazine to a blue colour which I gained feedback on and I decided to change the colour scheme back to red as it fit the magazine genre better. In my final design I added more text and changed the name of the magazine which fits the rock genre a lot more the name is now "megadeath" also I have added text to the top left of the magazine to make it look more like a rock magazine.

Inspiration for double page spread

Weekly Post

This week I plan to finish of my double page spread because last week I added the final touches to my front cover and contents page which allowed me to be more relaxed knowing I have a full week to completely finish my double page spread. I need to make sure my fonts are correct and also I need to ask for a bit of feedback from fellow classmates.